


The Boy

by thunderlilly



Category: DCU (Comics), The Boys (TV 2019)
Genre: Catatonic, The Boys adopting Jason, catatonic!jason, feeding a stray robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-17
Updated: 2020-09-17
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:20:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26512051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderlilly/pseuds/thunderlilly
Summary: Billie feeds a stray and the Boys adopt a robin
Comments: 1
Kudos: 58





	The Boy

There’s a kid lurking in the shadows.

Billie sees them the first time wandering after him in a dark alley and - of course - his first thought is that he’s being tailed.

He corners the kid just a few minutes later and after some more minutes talking at them realises that they doesn’t understand a bloody word he’s saying. Not just the language, but everything. It’s just empty eyes staring listlessly back at him. Completely catatonic. (Or, at least, pretending to be).

They’re small and underfed and so dirty that it’s impossible for Billie to determine the colour of their skin or even the features of their face and their hair is long enough (though just as dirty and messed up as the rest of them) that he also doesn’t see what gender they are.

He leaves them in that alley, without a second thought and doesn’t see the kid coming after him.

It keeps him up, though, because, despite what he would like to pretend, he’s not a complete sociopath. The kid had looked terribly beaten up, blood sticking to just about every inch of their skin and deep, gnarly gashes only half healed marring their whole body. Their clothes had been just as ragged as the kid themself and not at all suited for the steadily colder days.

So Billie goes back.

He is neither surprised nor disappointed when the kid isn’t there and tells the tiny, disquieted voice in the back of his head to fuck the hell off and leave him be like it usually does. _Good riddance_ , he thinks as he leaves the shadows of the alleyway behind him.

(The voice doesn’t leave, but he’s always been good at pretending not to hear the things he doesn’t want to hear and life goes on.)

It’s two months before he sees the kid again, in a whole ‘nother part of the city, loitering in another dark allay.

They still won’t talk to him and don’t even flinch when Billie resorts to yelling.

They _do_ react when he pretends to take a swing at them, just to see and pretty much convinced that it wouldn’t get him anywhere either, whimper and flinch away so violently that their back hits the wall previously a few feet behind them and then flinch _again_.

(Billie _does not_ feel guilty about it afterwards, it was an experiment and he got the results he’d been looking for.)

(He doesn’t like them, though, not at all, but he shoves it down anyway, not like he can do anything about it.)

He leaves the kid with some food (they probably wouldn’t know to buy some if he’d just given them the money). He holds out the sandwich and a cup of hot cocoa, first. Then, when the kid doesn’t respond he takes their hand (ignoring the flinch) and presses the sandwich (unwrapped) into their palm. He leaves the cocoa next to where he’s guided them, as gently as he can allow himself to be when no one is around to judge him, onto the ground, doesn’t want them to burn themselves if they can’t recognise the cup in their hands and spill it.

He sits there, for just a few minutes and it’s kind of peaceful, actually. Just sitting in silence without being judged or treated like he might explode any second.

He has to leave, though, when the kid starts leaning against him carefully (he tells himself that he’s not at all running away from the pitiful sight of the lost, broken child in the street).

He pretends to not hear the quietly whispered “B?”.

(But in the dark, lying in his bed he can’t help but wonder just how the fuck this kid knows him. Because it can’t have been just a coincidence that the kid _knew_ how to address him, even if it was just the first letter if his name. Wonders if they really _had_ been tailing him that first night he saw them, and how they’d even managed it, with the state they are in.)

(And then, just before drifting off, he wonders if they’ve found a safe place to sleep. Somewhere warm and dry. And if they managed to eat the sandwich and drink the cocoa and then falls asleep before he can push that thought away.)

Billie finds himself inevitably drawn to the darker alleyways whenever he and the boys are outside. Standing closer to the shadows and waiting always a few seconds too long before returning to the car. Always stops for a while at the mouth of some deserted street or another, before returning home from a food run.

It’s another few months before he sees them again and when he lays eyes on the curled up, cowering form of the kid he sees red. There are four men stood around them where they are lying on the floor, shoulders heaving with silent sobs and almost inaudible whimpers. The men kicking at them and laughing and Billie stands at the edge of the alley until the beating of his own heart drowns out the thuds of sneakers hitting flesh. The kid just lies there and _takes it_ , curling up tighter around themselves and _doesn’t do anything_.

He beats the fuckers within an inch of their lives until they’re lying on the ground themselves, crying and whimpering like the pathetic, useless little cunts they are. Then he steps over them and and hoists the kid up by their bruised and too thin shoulders, deposits them into the back of the car.

When he finally arrives back at the hideout, way too late and a catatonic, beaten up kid trailing after him, MM only stares at him for a few seconds, at the blood that’s dried on his knuckles and jacket and boots and the hunched over figure behind him, before turning away and mumbling something about bloodthirsty psychopaths with rampant mother hen instincts. Billie is just about to open his mouth to tell him to fuck off, but magnanimously decides to let the comment slide at MM’s pointed stare in Hughie’s direction.

Frenchie takes one look at the kid and disappears into the kitchen only to come back balancing a huge plate of pancakes.

(He glares at Billie when he tries to snatch one for himself and _hits him with the fucking spatula and it’s obviously not Billie with the raging mother hen instincts_.)

(He will concede the point about the bloodthirsty psychopath thing though, MM might be onto something there.)

Surprisingly, it’s Hughie who rains on his parade (although, if Billie’s being honest with himself, who else would it be, if not Hughie).

But, because he’s _Hughie_ , he doesn’t start with the fact that taking in a kid - and a completely catatonic one at that - is a liability and that, if it comes to it they can’t take them with them.

But, because he’s Hughie and he is so much nicer than Billie will ever be or (to be completely honest, has ever been)he starts with the fact that bringing a stranger - however oblivious they might be - into their little hideout full of international fugitives is a capital B bad idea.

Billie smiles and nods and lies through his teeth when he tells Hughie that the kid is an old acquaintance (never mind the fact that they can’t be older than sixteen, at most and that Billie can’t stand kids, generally).

Hughie, because he is naive, but not at all stupid, doesn’t believe him, but instead chooses to ignore his answer and instead goes straight to point two.

“That’s a _kid_ ,” he says, urgent, like he’s trying to tell Billie something that he doesn’t seem to get even though it’s pretty fucking obvious that the kid is a kid.

Billie grins and nods and says, “Obviously,” and then begins to steer the kid by their shoulders towards what amounts to their bathroom.

(He ignores Hughie’s sigh and Frenchie shaking his head and MM’s clenched jaw, like he somehow doesn’t understand the implications of the kid being a kid, even though he was the one to bring them in, so _what the fuck do they want from him_?!)

He’s taken about three steps in the direction of the bathroom when Hughie finally goes for it. Except (again, because he’s fucking Hughie, bless his sweet little heart) he doesn’t say _they’re a liability_ \- which is exactly what they are and which is exactly what Billie would’ve said. Instead he says, “Are you sure about this?” And when Billie stops he continues, “They’ve obviously been hurt, Butcher _(which is the fucking understatement of the century)_ , and its great that you want to take care of them, but with those injuries and us being fugitives — do you really think it would be... wise, if we take someone in who needs... special care?”

Billie can practically feel the others waiting with baited breath, because they all know that what Hughie has actually _said_ was _we’re horrible people and you’re the most horrible of us all and taking in the kid - any kid - would be stupid and irresponsibleand will most likely get us all killed._

And, granted, Billie’s never been the most responsible person, but (and this is where most people make the grave mistake of assuming otherwise) neither has Hughie. Indisputable proof of that being the very fact that Hughie is here, present, with them. Hunted and hated and a _killer_.

And fact is, that Billie _knows_ Hughie. Better than anyone else, despite having only known him for a few days longer than the others, at most, and in the end Hughie has pretty much always followed where Billie’s led, only ever digs his heels in when he goes against his perception of loyalty.

So.

Billie knows what Hughie has _also_ said.

Because Hughie said, _if **we** take them in_. And really, that’s all there is to say.

That damned bleeding heart of his. Billie had half hoped that Hughie would talk him out of this one, because there are some very important points to be made about a group of terrorists taking in a brain damaged, beaten and traumatised kid (and he knows every single one, because he went through that whole list twice on the way back to the hideout).

He should’ve remembered, though, that Hughie is the last person (possibly on this very planet) that would be able to resist a pair of eyes as sad and as broken as these.

(Billie still can’t bring himself to regret his decision, though, even when MM starts to quietly make clucking sounds in his direction as he passes him by.)


End file.
